Janaína da Silveira

Fatores associados à hipertensão arterial sistêmica e ao estado nutricional de hipertensos inscritos no programa Hiperdia

OBJECTIVE: To analyze factors associated with hypertension and its relation with nutritional status of hypertensive subjects enrolled in the program Hiperdia in a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul. METHODS: We evaluated patients with hypertension enrolled in Hiperdia. The data related with risk factors for hypertension were collected through a semi structured questionnaire composed of the following variables: age, education, exercise, smoking, drugs consumed, genetics, chronic diseases, weight, height and waist circumference. RESULTS: Among the 402 hypertensive patients studied, 138 (34.3%) were adults and 264 (65.7%) were elderly, and the majority were female. The prevalence of overweight was 76.8% in adults, while 35% of them were normal weight. When compared the ages, 11% of the elderly were significantly associated with illiteracy. The adults and the elderly presented waist circumference and BMI classification above desired levels. CONCLUSION: In this study, hypertension was associated with increase of age, excess of weight, waist circumference, low education, smoking and alcohol consumption. Excess of weight was configured as one of the most aggravating factors in this population.

A vitamin D pathway gene–gene interaction affects low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels

Much evidence suggests an association between vitamin D deficiency and chronic diseases such as obesity and dyslipidemia. Although genetic factors play an important role in the etiology of these diseases, only a few studies have investigated the relationship between vitamin D-related genes and anthropometric and lipid profiles. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of three vitamin D-related genes with anthropometric and lipid parameters in 542 adult individuals. We analyzed the rs2228570 polymorphism in the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR), rs2134095 in the retinoid X receptor gamma gene (RXRG) and rs7041 in the vitamin D-binding protein gene (GC). Polymorphisms were genotyped by TaqMan allelic discrimination. Gene-gene interactions were evaluated by the general linear model. The functionality of the polymorphisms was investigated using the following predictors and databases: SIFT (Sorting Intolerant from Tolerant), PolyPhen-2 (Polymorphism Phenotyping v2) and Human Splicing Finder 3. We identified a significant effect of the interaction between RXRG (rs2134095) and GC (rs7041) on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) levels (P=.005). Furthermore, our in silico analysis suggested a functional role for both variants in the regulation of the gene products. Our results suggest that the vitamin D-related genes RXRG and GC affect LDL-c levels. These findings are in agreement with other studies that consistently associate vitamin D and lipid profile. Together, our results corroborate the idea that analyzing gene-gene interaction would be helpful to clarify the genetic component of lipid profile.